Niall Ferguson: The U.S. Has Lost its Competitive Edge and There’s Only One Place to Put the Blame…
Niall Ferguson, the historian and economist who has been warning the U.S. about its faltering economy for years, is back and he has a troubling study in tow. During an interview with Bloomberg TV, Ferguson cites a new Harvard Business School (HBS) study that claims the U.S. has fallen behind in global economic competitiveness. For instance, the January study found that for "Harvard alums personally involved in a company relocation decision, 57 percent said the decision 'involved the possibility of moving existing activities out of the U.S.,'" Rob Wile of Business Insider reports. “Meanwhile, only 9 percent considered moving existing activities from another country into the U.S.,” he adds. Watch Ferguson discuss the HBS report (via Bloomberg): "A U.S.-based respondent was three times as likely to be considering moving business activity out of the U.S. than a non-U.S. respondent was likely to be considering moving an activity into the U.S," writes Professor Michael Porter, the study's author.
The below chart from the HBS study shows current vs. expected American industry sector global success. As the chart clearly indicates, the respondents believe there will be a decline in competitiveness in all industries:
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And as far as “competitiveness” is concerned, literally no one believes things are going to improve:
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So what's the deal? Why the dismal outlook? Apparently, U.S. businesses hate the U.S. economy for a couple of simple reasons: “[T]hey can't stand the tax code and they can't stand politicians,” Business Insider’s Joe Weisenthal writes. Taxes, uncertainty, and regulations; it's as simple as that (as this chart clearly indicates):
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